John Washington III Asks What the Government Built to Protect the People, After Building Bunkers for Its Leaders

John Washington III, a 2028 presidential candidate, has raised a question about how the federal government protected its own leaders during the Cold War — and what it built for everyone else. In a written piece, he wrote, "What did our government build to give the American people that same level of protection?"

John Washington III cited the historical spending on leadership facilities. The Greenbrier bunker in West Virginia, designed to shelter members of Congress, cost approximately $14 million, he wrote. Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania had reportedly cost $35 million by April 1954, and Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado cost approximately $142 million to construct during the 1960s. Mount Weather in Virginia became another major federal emergency facility, although, he wrote, its complete historical construction cost is not readily established in the public records reviewed.

For ordinary Americans, John Washington III wrote, the federal government established a public fallout shelter program, identified existing buildings that could provide protection, and distributed emergency supplies. A Government Accountability Office report documented approximately $122 million in food and emergency supplies purchased for public fallout shelters in the early 1960s, he wrote, and the government also funded some shelter construction and improvements.

John Washington III argued that much of the public program depended on buildings that already existed rather than on constructing dedicated underground facilities comparable to those serving government leadership. That contrast, he wrote, is where his concern begins: if the government recognized the danger strongly enough to build specialized underground facilities for its leadership, he asked why there was not a comparable effort for the people.